Olsen’s short story depicts a teenage mother thoughts and feelings toward her child from the day she was born. Throughout the story she dwells on her child as she grows up, but she does not get involved enough with her. Her daughter Emily is a forgotten child even though she is the main topic of the story while Tan’s story interprets a mother basically being obsessed with trying to make her daughter be the best at anything in life, because she believed that everyone in America could be anything they wanted. From Olsen’s, “I Stand Here Ironing” and Tan’s short story, “Two Kinds”, they both explain the relationship between a mother and daughter.
The mother in “I Stand Here Ironing” struggles to create a bond with her daughter, Emily, as the …show more content…
She did not give any attention, time or effort towards Emily, because she was not mature enough; she was still a child herself and she mentions how it was the time of depression. “I was nineteen. It was the pre-relief, pre-WPA world of the depression” (Olsen302). The mother was not in any way ready to raise the child. The mother was a teenager working, trying to make things better, so she dedicated her time towards working and did not have much time to spend with Emily. In the story she says, “But it came to where I had to leave her to his family,” (Olsen302). She also says, “When she finally came, I hardly knew her,” (Olsen302). The mother worked so much that the times that she did see her daughter, she was a changed person; she was not the same loving baby anymore. Not like the mother in “Two kinds”, she never pushed her daughter Emily to do anything she did not want to do even when she was busy and struggling. The mother in “I Stand Here Ironing” was not arrogant because she was too busy trying to provide for her and her daughters; she was bland. She was excluded from her daughter, but she was trying hard to become a mother and get to know the her. “Let her be. So all that is in her will not bloom. Only help her to know-help make it so there is cause for her to know-that she is more than this dress on the ironing board, helpless before the iron,” (Olsen307). She too, as the mother in “Two Kinds”, wanted best for her daughter, but Emily’s mother wanted her to self-discover and do what pleased herself, not what made her
The mother in “I Stand Here Ironing” struggles to create a bond with her daughter, Emily, as the …show more content…
She did not give any attention, time or effort towards Emily, because she was not mature enough; she was still a child herself and she mentions how it was the time of depression. “I was nineteen. It was the pre-relief, pre-WPA world of the depression” (Olsen302). The mother was not in any way ready to raise the child. The mother was a teenager working, trying to make things better, so she dedicated her time towards working and did not have much time to spend with Emily. In the story she says, “But it came to where I had to leave her to his family,” (Olsen302). She also says, “When she finally came, I hardly knew her,” (Olsen302). The mother worked so much that the times that she did see her daughter, she was a changed person; she was not the same loving baby anymore. Not like the mother in “Two kinds”, she never pushed her daughter Emily to do anything she did not want to do even when she was busy and struggling. The mother in “I Stand Here Ironing” was not arrogant because she was too busy trying to provide for her and her daughters; she was bland. She was excluded from her daughter, but she was trying hard to become a mother and get to know the her. “Let her be. So all that is in her will not bloom. Only help her to know-help make it so there is cause for her to know-that she is more than this dress on the ironing board, helpless before the iron,” (Olsen307). She too, as the mother in “Two Kinds”, wanted best for her daughter, but Emily’s mother wanted her to self-discover and do what pleased herself, not what made her